£670K dodgy Legal Aid claims lawyer who made Pensioner HOMELESS, told to pay derisory £100 fine by Scottish Legal Complaints Commission

A solicitor who ruined pensioner's legal affairs is given slap on the wrist by law complaints regulator SLCC. KILMARNOCK solicitor Niels S Lockhart, who was accused by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) of making dodgy claims for legal aid work and who then went on to ruin the legal affairs of a pensioner and other clients is to be allowed to continue working as a lawyer after the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC), the ‘independent’ regulator of solicitors decided his firm NS Lockhart Solicitors need only pay a meagre fine of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS to a victim who had complained about the legal nightmare she had been put through.

Esther Francis (aged 70), who was made homeless as a result of Mr Lockhart’s inaction over her legal problems and was then forced to starve herself to pay Lockhart’s demands for legal fees is to be given a derisory £100 in compensation and a £230 rebate of fees against sole practising solicitor Lockhart who raked in SIX HUNDRED & SEVENTY THOUSAND POUNDS of taxpayer funded legal aid in just three years. More on Esther’s nightmare at the hands of Mr Lockhart can be read in an earlier report by Diary of Injustice, here : Legal Aid officials hid details of dodgy claims scandal as ‘Pay-Up threats’ from £600K legal aid rogue lawyer leaves pensioner, 70, starving, homeless

Niels Lockhart was the subject of lengthy investigations by the Scottish Legal Aid Board which were uncovered by Diary of Injustice & the Sunday Mail newspaper, reported earlier here : One law for lawyers : Secret Report reveals Legal Aid Board, Law Society & Legal Defence Union ‘cosy relationship’ in Lockhart case

Today, Diary of Injustice is able to publish the investigation carried out by the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission into Niels S Lockhart. The report, now in the hands of media outlets, can be viewed online here : SLCC Investigation of complaint against Niels S Lockhart of NS Lockhart Solicitors, Kilmarnock.

Esther Francis was hassled by Lockhart over bill yet her legal case had been ruined and she’d been made homeless. In the SLCC report, investigators found Mr Lockhart had provided an inadequate professional service to Mrs Francis, however the investigator for the SLCC then went onto recommend sanction only be applied to the firm rather than Mr Lockhart himself. No disciplinary measures were recommended by the SLCC, allowing Mr Lockhart’s firm to continue working after facing little more than a slap on the wrist.

It can also be revealed the SLCC DENIED Mrs Francis any access to submissions made by the LEGAL DEFENCE UNION (LDU) who were called in to intervene in the complaint on Mr Lockhart’s behalf. Diary of Injustice earlier reported on the LDU’s intervention in the complaint made against Mr Lockhart, and terse resistance from the SLCC to disclose the contact, here : SCANDAL : Legal Defence Union intervene in SLCC investigation over £670K Legal Aid lawyer who made Pensioner HOMELESS, STARVED to pay legal bills

There has also been no comment from the SLCC on the production to their office of the full investigation carried out by the Scottish Legal Aid Board into Lockhart’s actions, which Diary of Injustice published after a Freedom of Information disclosure, here : SCOTTISH LEGAL AID BOARD S31 COMPLAINT REPORT TO THE LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND : NIELS S LOCKHART

A legal insider told Diary of Injustice today : “If there are other clients of NS Lockhart solicitors who feel they have been mistreated, now is the time to make a complaint to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.”

Diary of Injustice would also like to hear from any clients who feel they are being mistreated by their solicitors and would like to remind readers that media coverage may benefit the progress of their complaints, and help prevent other consumers from being ripped off by ‘crooked lawyers’ Readers can send details of dealings with solicitors to Diary of Injustice via scottishlawreporters@gmail.com

The Sunday Mail has covered the latest development in the Lockhart case, reporting here :

OAP's fury as rogue lawyer is let off.

By: Lauren Crooks Jun 3, 2012 Sunday Mail

Rogue lawyer Niels Lockhart has escaped punishment for mistreating an elderly client - after legal watchdogs decided his firm were to blame instead.

Furious Esther Francis, 70, complained to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission over claims Lockhart failed to make any progress in her case and threatened her over bills she could not afford.

But after investigating, they decided it was the whole firm N S Lockhart - based in Kilmarnock - at fault, rather than Lockhart himself.

They wrote to Esther telling her the firm would refund £230 in fees she paid, plus £100 compensation. But Esther says she can't believe Lockhart is still allowed to work as a lawyer.

Esther, who has rejected the settlement, said: "I got the letter last week. I wrote back and told them I wasn't accepting the payment."

Last year Lockhart was rapped by the Scottish Legal Aid Board for raking in 600,000 pounds of taxpayers' cash over two years through "unnecessary and excessive" claims.

Esther reported Lockhart to the watchdog last September amid claims he had failed to progress with her case, despite several meetings with him.

Their decision states: "N S Lockhart's failure to progress Mrs Francis's claim in the 12 months that they acted for her amounted to an inadequate professional service."

BACKGROUND : LOCKHART, LEGAL AID & THE LEGAL DEFENCE UNION

The long story of Mr Lockhart’s legal aid claims began nearly ten years ago, although it took the Scottish Legal Aid Board years to catch up with him, when eventually on 5 June 2005 the Scottish Legal Aid Board sent a report to the Law Society of Scotland in terms of S32 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 against the sole practitioner firm of Niels S Lockhart, 71 King Street, Kilmarnock. The secret report on Niels S Lockhart, obtained in 2011 by Diary of Injustice under Freedom of Information laws, can be downloaded here : SCOTTISH LEGAL AID BOARD S31 COMPLAINT REPORT TO THE LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND : NIELS S LOCKHART (pdf) The Scottish Legal Aid Board’s report outlined a number of issues that had been identified during the review of case files & accounts which raised concern about Mr Lockhart’s conduct and which fell to be considered as a breach of either Regulation 31 (3) (a) & (b), relating to his conduct when acting or selected to act for persons to whom legal aid or advice and assistance is made available, and his professional conduct generally. These issues illustrated the repetitious nature of Mr Lockhart’s failure to charge fees “actually, necessarily and reasonable incurred, due regard being bad to economy”

The heads of complaint submitted by the Scottish Legal Aid Board to the Law Society of Scotland were :

(1) Excessive attendances, (2) Lack of Progress, (3) Splitting/Repeating Subject Matters, (4) Inappropriate Requests for Increases in Authorised Expenditure, (5) Matters resubmitted under a different guise, (6) Standard Attendance Times, (7) Attendances for Matters Not Related to the Subject Matter of the Case, (8) Unreasonable Charges, (9) Double Charging for Correspondence, (10) Account entries not supported by Client Files, (11) Attempt to Circumvent Statutory Payment Procedure for Property Recovered or Preserved, (12) Continued Failure to act with Due Regard to Economy.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board report also revealed : “From April 2002—March 2005, Niels S Lockhart was paid £672,585 from the Legal Aid Fund. Of this, £596,734 (89%) was in relation to Advice and Assistance cases, with £570,528 (85%) solely in relation to Civil Advice and Assistance. In the Board’s view, the ranges of actions taken by Niels S. Lockhart towards achieving those payments are not those appropriate to a competent and reputable solicitor.”

“Based on the supporting evidence he arranges for, or permits, his clients to attend his office on numerous occasions for excessive, unnecessary and often irrelevant meetings. In the main, these do not appear to have advantages for their further welfare or advance their case, but merely act as a mechanism for the firm to exploit the Legal Aid Fund by charging for these unnecessary and unproductive meetings. The nature of subject matters is often repeated, resulting in numerous duplicate/multiple/consecutive grants submitted under various guises, thus avoiding the Board’s computerised checks on subject matter. This pattern of conduct is deliberate,recurring and persistent, serving—in the Board’s view—as a device to generate considerable additional income for the firm to the detriment of the Scottish Legal Aid Fund.”

However, in October 2010, Mr Lockhart’s legal representative James McCann of the Legal Defence Union approached SLAB with a prospective offer that Mr Lockhart would withdraw fully from providing legal aid if SLAB’s S31 complaint was withdrawn. A Minute of Agreement was drafter and agreed with Niels Lockhart & the Legal Defence Union outlining the voluntary and irrevocable withdrawal by Mr Lockhart and the firm from the provision of all firms of legal assistance (funded by legal aid). The Minute of Agreement also outlined the Board’s intention to make a press release detailing that following SLAB’s investigation into the firm and their subsequent complaint to the Law Society of Scotland, SLAB had accepted this permanent withdrawal by Mr Lockhart and the firm from providing all forms of legal assistance.

Diary of Injustice continued to report on allegations surrounding Mr Lockhart and the Law Society of Scotland’s efforts to avoid a prosecution. All previous reports can be viewed HERE.

Questions over safety of £160m Legal Aid payments to lawyers as insiders claims some Scots law firms accounts are “dogs breakfasts”

Can Scots lawyers be trusted with £160m of legal aid public funds when client frauds continue to occur ? LAW FIRMS identified in client frauds should not expect to automatically receive public funds from the ONE HUNDRED & SIXTY MILLION POUND taxpayer funded legal aid budget managed by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB), until solicitors and their regulators publicly prove they are preventing further fraud by beefing up strict supervision over their internal accounting procedures, according to a senior legal insider who branded Scottish lawyers accounts generally as “a dogs breakfast” and in some cases “lacking any credibility in the business world”.

Last weekend, the Sunday Mail newspaper reported a significant fraud involving up to £150,000 of client funds from Kilmarnock law firm BELL & COMPANY SOLICITORS. It was further reported the law firm called in the Police after the fraud, which had apparently been going on for some months, had been discovered. A paralegal was identified in connection with the fraud and is reported to have been dismissed from her post. There are as yet no reports of any criminal charges being made in the case.

It was later revealed Bell & Co Solicitors regularly conduct legal aid work, receiving, £119,100 of taxpayer funded legal aid for 2009-2010, £82,600 in 2008-2009, £81,800 in 2007-2008, £83,700 in 2006-2007, £81,800 in 2005-2006, £79,700 in 2004-2005, & £91,100 in 2003-2004. All figures are sourced from SLAB’s own legal aid payments figures, available HERE

There is no suggestion whatsoever the fraud at Bell & Co Solicitors extends to legal aid payments, and, according to news reports, the law firm did call in the Police as soon as the fraud was discovered, however as the firm is registered with the Scottish Legal Aid Board and regularly receive payments, SLAB was asked if they were concerned about reports in the press of a law firm which receives legal aid public funds had been identified in a substantial client fraud.

A spokesperson for the Board said : “Any allegation of fraud against a firm’s client account does not mean that legal aid fraud was being committed. The Board has not been notified by the Law Society or the Police of any concerns in respect of legal aid payments to this firm. However, it is our normal practice where there have been any allegations of fraud that we make enquiries to satisfy ourselves that public funds are not at risk.”

The spokesperson continued : “The Board's auditing processes ensure the on-going monitoring of all firms registered to provide legal assistance. We only grant applications that meet statutory tests and on receipt of accounts submitted by solicitors; pay only for work that actually, necessarily and reasonably has been undertaken.”

SLAB was further asked to confirm if any enquiries regarding Bell & Co had been made. Their spokesperson said : “Unfortunately, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further, the statement is the fullest response we can make.”

A senior legal  insider, who prefers not to be named, said SLAB should be more pro-active in taking away legal aid payments from law firms who are identified in frauds of any kind until such time as they prove themselves fit to receive public funds.

He said : “If as happens in some cases already part of the media record, a law firm’s internal structure is such that large scale frauds can go on for a lengthy period of time before being identified, there are obviously problems within the audit procedures of that particular law firm and its supervision of its partners and employees. Clearly this raises questions as to whether it is safe to pay vast amounts of public money to such firms. In my opinion, thought should be given to automatically deregister law firms identified in fraud cases until they publicly prove to the Scottish Legal Aid Board their audit procedures & supervision will prevent such incidents occurring in the future.”

He continued : “Additionally, if a case arises where there is a report of fraud at a law firm, if the firm is registered to provide legal aid there should be a requirement on the Law Society of Scotland and the Police to notify the Scottish Legal Aid Board immediately so the board can make enquiries of the firm  itself and conduct its own audit if required rather than having to read about it in the newspapers first.”

He also backed up claims from others within the profession that solicitors internal audit procedures are a mess.

He said : “Many sets of firm’s accounts I have seen resemble a dogs breakfast and would lack any credibility in the business world. One might say in certain instances, accounts were simply fabricated to get past an audit.“

A former employee of an Edinburgh law firm alleged a general culture of dishonesty in audit procedures, particularly on how accounts for services to clients are prepared.

She said  : “In some cases it is clear there are charges put on clients bills for services which the client neither authorised, requested or required. In one case I am aware of, a client’s bill was three times the amount it should have been. The Law Society took over two years to agree the fee note should be reduced. The law firm pursued the client through the courts for money it claimed was owed to it, yet there was never any doubt the work it alleges it was due payment for, never took place.”

It should be noted in the particular case referred to above, the Sheriff ruled in favour of the law firm’s since-discovered-to-be-fabricated evidence which did not help matters and resulted in a protracted time of threats of repossession & bankruptcy against the client concerned.

The matter was only resolved when the case was given to a journalist to investigate who discovered one of the two counsels opinions had been faked as the Advocate who it was claimed had given the opinion was ill at the time and not working. Upon being shown the evidence, along with an email from the Advocate who denied giving any opinion in the case, the law firm subsequently ceased its demands for any fees, however there are no reports of any action being taken against the law firm and its legal representatives who clearly lied in court to obtain recovery of fees it was not due.

SOLICITORS ‘WERE USELESS AND UNABLE TO COUNT’ :

The general perception of Scots law firms failing to keep accurate accounts was coincidentally reflected in sentiments reportedly expressed by the Chief Executive of the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB), Lindsay Montgomery, who was alleged to have said in an allegedly recorded conversation with the Govan Law Centre’s Mike Dailly that solicitors “were useless and unable to count”.

The controversial, unverified remarks were made public by Mr Dailly who claimed the SLAB Chief Executive had leaned on the Law Society of Scotland to silence its Access to Justice Committee, which was chaired by Mr Dailly until he & its members resigned in protest after arguments broke out over the Committee’s published proposals to scrap the Scottish Legal Aid Board and merge it with the scandal ridden, anti-client Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

The Daily Record newspaper reported on the proposals to merge SLAB with the SLCC and take legal aid under the wing of solicitors directly : “The access to justice committee's plan would transfer the responsibility for administering legal aid to a new body created out of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC), who are currently paid for the solicitors they oversee. Committee chairman Mike Dailly claimed the changes could save £40 million.”

Top Scots QC Paul McBride, who is a Board member of the Scottish Legal Aid Board was reported to have “slammed the proposed changes as "preposterous.” and said further : "SLAB exist to enable access to justice and to make sure legal aid delivers the maximum value for the taxpayer. The board serve a vital role and save the public an enormous amount every year. The idea of putting lawyers in charge of administering money to themselves is preposterous and unworkable. "This is like putting Homer Simpson in charge of a doughnut factory."

While debate still rages on whether the SLAB Chief Executive made the remarks or not, I revealed earlier this week some Scottish lawyers most certainly do have the ability to count their own bank accounts, where : In just one of the cases brought to the attention of Diary of Injustice over the past year, an apparently small but well known law firm in the Scottish Borders was found to have dozens of bank accounts where client funds had been lost on a regular basis and worse still, one of the solicitors in the law firm has, according to information seen by Diary of Injustice, 23 different bank accounts in different banks & different names, some using variations of his own name, others allegedly in his family members name with control signed over to him.

Protect your money by withdrawing it from your lawyer as £150,000 goes missing from another Scottish law firm, weak Law Society regulation to blame

Weak regulation by Law Society of Scotland & Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to blame for rising theft of client funds. BELL & COMPANY SOLICITORS, a law firm in Kilmarnock which raked in £119,100 of taxpayer funded legal aid for 2009-2010 has been forced to call in the Police after it was revealed in an audit that the firm appears to have lost up to £150,000 of client funds, reports the Sunday Mail newspaper. The fraud has apparently been going on for a matter of months, with money being taken from some client accounts while other clients money was used to cover up the fraud.

Law Society of Scotland’s Philip Yelland, in charge of weak regulation of crooked Scottish lawyers for over 20 years. Earlier today, legal experts blamed the dismal level of regulation of Scotland’s legal profession which is supposedly regulated by both the Law Society of Scotland and the anti-client Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC). However, once again, clients of Scottish solicitors are suffering huge financial losses because of poor regulation and poor oversight of both solicitors and their staff who are targeting the myriad of client accounts held by their law firms, accounts which are often poorly policed by the solicitors who control them and the Law Society of Scotland who are supposed to regulate & audit them.

In just one of the cases brought to the attention of Diary of Injustice over the past year, an apparently small but well known law firm in the Scottish Borders was found to have dozens of bank accounts where client funds had been lost on a regular basis and worse still, one of the solicitors in the law firm has, according to information seen by Diary of Injustice, 23 different bank accounts in different banks & different names, some using variations of his own name, others allegedly in his family members name with control signed over to him.

In the latest reported case of £150,000 of missing client finds, neither the Law Society of Scotland or the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission have issued any public statement.

While the Police have been called in by the law firm, Bell & Co Solicitors, readers will be well aware of the ‘difficulties’ in law firm fraud cases getting to court. Regular readers of Diary of Injustice will also by now be familiar with the notoriously weak client protection scheme offered by by the Law Society to pay out missing client funds, known as the Guarantee Fund, covered in an earlier article, here : Law Society's 'Guarantee Fund' for clients of crooked lawyers revealed as multi million pound masterpiece of claims dodging corruption

The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) was asked for input on this story and whether it was concerned over the revelations a firm on its books has suffered a fraud. As yet no response has been forthcoming from SLAB.

The message is clear, the Law Society of Scotland has failed yet again to keep tight financial controls on client funds and an effective regime of enforcement which would prevent client fund accounts being looted in Scotland on a daily basis by solicitors and their office staff. If you as consumers want to protect your own funds & assets, you would be advised to withdraw them from your solicitors control and their law firm, immediately.

The Sunday Mail reports on Bell & Company of Kirmarnock :

Law firm call in the police after £150k goes missing

Aug 14 2011 Derek Alexander, Sunday Mail

A LAW firm have called in police after large sums of clients' cash went missing.

An audit of accounts at Bell & Company Solicitors found a six-figure sum, which legal sources say could be as high as £150,000, was missing. Now detectives plan to question a female member of staff who has been absent from work since the black hole in the accounts was revealed.

The Kilmarnock firm, run by lawyer Susan Bell, contacted the police last month. They have also contacted the Law Society of Scotland about "financial irregularities".

Fraud squad officers will investigate claims that legal documents were forged and clients' mortgage and loan repayments falsified over a period of months. Law firms hold money in account for their clients during legal transactions including house purchases.

A source said: "This is a serious situation. It will affect clients who had hoped to either use money to buy a house or pay off their existing loans. The cash is no longer there for them. It appears the money was disappearing from the clients' account for a few months and the holes were being plugged but with other clients' cash. It was only matter of time before it was discovered."

Ms Bell said last night: "On July 19, I discovered apparent irregularities in my firm's client account. A member of staff, who was not a solicitor, was suspended immediately. Following disciplinary proceedings, her employment was terminated."